From: utzoo!decvax!ucbvax!ARPAVAX:UNKNOWN:sf-lovers Newsgroups: fa.sf-lovers Title: SF-LOVERS Digest Volume 6, Issue 53 Article-I.D.: ucbvax.8763 Posted: Tue Oct 12 02:46:11 1982 Received: Sun Oct 17 03:18:05 1982 >From SFL@SRI-CSL Mon Oct 11 13:38:07 1982 SF-LOVERS Digest 11-Oct-82 Volume 6 : Issue 53 Today's Topics: Finding hard to get SF, ET, Bladerunner, Jedi, Tron, Haldeman's WORLDS, Niven & Barnes' DREAM PARK, Farmer's A BARNSTORMER IN OZ Hogan's VOYAGE FROM YESTERYEAR ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: 18 Aug 1982 2318-EDT From: Reed B. Powell To: sf-lovers at SRI-CSL DTN: 231-4261 Mail-Stop: MRO2-4/D3 Subject: Finding Hard to Get SF Volumes There have been a few requests of late for information on those hard to find SF oldies. An excellant source is ZIESING BROTHERS, located in Willimantic CT. Their complete address is: Ziesing Brothers 768 Main Street Willimantic, CT 06226 c/o Mark (203)423-5836 The proprietor (Mark) publishes a quarterly listing of their volumes, which include hardbacks, softbacks, paperbacks, first printings, signed volumes, collector's editions, etc. A large selection of British printings (including EE DOC Smith) is also stocked. The quickest route to finding a specific volume is to call mark and ask him to hunt it down for you. -reed ------------------------------ Date: 20 Aug 82 11:22:24-EDT (Fri) From: David Axler To: sf-lovers at Sri-Csl Subject: On Obtaining Hard-to-Find Books of the European Variety Via: UPenn; 20 Aug 82 21:47-EDT Though many of the U.S. and Canadian mail-order and walk-in sf bookstores do carry some amount of material by European writers (esp. British), the brunt of such books are American editions, usually issued several years after the original publication. This can prove frustrating, especially in the case of series books (e.g., Moorcock's Jerry Cornelius tetralogy, the last book of which didn't get released here for five years after its British printing, and when it did get out, it was only available in an omnibus edition with the other three in one binding -- a waste of money if you already had 'em). I've developed a system which, though it does take a bit of my time, gets around these problems [some of which are due, of course, to problems with international copyright laws, while others can be blamed on lazy agents]. The first step is to determine what authors one is interested in. This list might well include Americans, as some books that are out of print here are still in European publication (sometimes in English, sometimes not...). Next, I head for the nearest major library's Reference room, and get out the most recent edition of British Books in Print and its monthly update magazine. I look up each author and, when I find a title that I'm interested in, I note the crucial facts: publisher, publication date, hard/paper back, and, most important of all, the ISBN. Now, there are other sources of listings for books in foreign languages, but since I'm insufficiently competent to read 'em, I ignore them. Those who are fluent, though, might find that translations of their favorite authors take on a new meaning. Once I've got all this information, I send off an order to England's best all-around bookstore, B. H. Blackwell's in Oxford. [Yes, there are some good all-sf stores in the U.K., but Blackwell's has several advantages . . .] I've had an account with them for about ten years, which allows me to pay for books in US currency at their New York bank; they bill about every three months, with no interest, or one can pay each shipping invoice as it comes. If one doesn't have an account, they will accept Mastercard or Visa. If you have an address at an academic institution, as I do, you're also eligible to use their private airfreight service -- they fly the books to the US, and then mail them book rate. If not, they will ship by boat or air, as you request. Unlike a lot of small shops, they impose no fee on any special orders; if they don't have a book, they will attempt to get it ASAP. By the way, with the pound currently worth less than two bucks, this is an excellent time to be buying books from Britain. Another advantage is that the British publishers generally do better work than their American counterparts: cover art is often better, and bindings last longer. Once you've become a regular customer at Blackwell's, you can open your own account. This allows you to regularly receive any or all of the fifty or so catalogues they issue during the course of a year, covering such topics as Fiction, Science & Mathematics, Art, Music, &c. They're an incredibly massive operation (five different stores along an Oxford block: Children's ; Paperback; Music; Arts; and main [which includes what Guinness describes as the largest single book sales room -- over three miles of bookshelves), and can get stuff from almost anywhere with no hassle. Their address is simply Blackwells, Broad Street, Oxford OX1 3BQ, England. ------------------------------ From: LDPVAX::GOLD::HENRY 17-AUG-1982 08:09 To: LDP::KIRK::SF_LOVERS I just saw ET for the first time. I think the movie was great. Any flaws I saw at the time were far outwieghed by the way the movie was put together. In past issues of the digest, comments were made about ET's attraction to Elliot's mother. ET is able to communicate thru the use of emotions and feelings. ET is feeling the same affection for Elliot's mother as Elliot does. Others comments I have read deal with the way in which the medical team handled ET's "heart attack". They acted as any other medical team would have acted in the same situation, they did what they have been trained to do. The same can be said for the rest of the Establishment in the movie, right or wrong, they carried out their duties. Just prior to seeing ET, I heard someone talking about how companies pay to have their products featured in movies. I understand that Reeces (sp?) Pieces are very difficult to get because of the great demand since ET was released. I am sure Ma Bell felt having their long distance commercial featured wouldn't hurt and who could forget ET and Coors. I'm sure Elliot won't. I have a question I hope someone can answer. In the first Star Wars movie, there was a difference in the introduction between the first time I saw it and the fifth time, other than changing the Star Wars title, was there another change? Bill ------------------------------ Posted-date: 23-Aug-1982 To: SF-LOVERS KIRK* Subject: The Revenge of the Jedi From: AL LEHOTSKY AT METOO I went to see Star Wars over the weekend again. They are now showing previews for ROTJ. It looks like we've got something to really look forward to. Since the whole preview lasts about 30 seconds, it's tough to give any detailed impressions, but as a minor piece of "intelligence", Han Solo recovers from the carbon freezing chamber. As rumored, there are desert-planet scenes (I don't think that it's Tatooine..) and some beings that are reminiscent of Jawas (but definitely NOT the same culture) as the sand-crawler crowd. Finally, the claim was "coming next summer to a theater in a galaxy near you". Does this mean that the release date won't be 5-21-83? ------------------------------ Subject: Blade Runner Anachronism (non-spoiler) From: PAUL WINALSKI AT METOO I think that Deckerd having a smallpox vaccination scar is a true anachronism, if he's supposed to have been born in the late 1980's. Sporadic individual cases of smallpox are still reported from the last few endemic pockets in Ethiopia and Somalia, but the disease has been eradicated in the rest of the world. The NIH and AMA now recommend that people NOT be vaccinated unless they are travelling to one of the endemic areas. At the present time, the death rate from vaccination complications far exceeds the risk of contracting smallpox. The smallpox vaccination is already a thing of the past. --Paul W. ------------------------------ Posted-date: 16-Aug-1982 To: SF-LOVERS @KIRK Subject: PAC MAN and TRON From: PAUL KARGER AT RDVAX AT PBSVAX at KRYPTN Did anyone else catch the image of PAC-MAN in TRON on a screen to which SARK pointed? ------------------------------ *** SPOILER, the following review of Joe Haldeman's WORLDS reveals *** *** information you may not want to know if you plan to read the book. *** Posted-date: 22-Aug-1982 To: SF-LOVERS @KIRK Subject: "Worlds" From: STEVE LIONEL AT STAR It's the year 2084, and sections of the United States have seceded and formed their own countries. One example is Nevada, where anything is legal. Enter our heroine, young, pretty and intelligent. She gets mixed up in with some revolutionaries, gets kidnapped and raped, and tries to get home while the whole world is battling things out with nuclear weapons. "Oh," you say, "that's Heinlein's newest book Friday." Well, it's not. Instead what we have here is Joe (Forever War, Mindbridge) Haldeman's newest book "Worlds" ($2.50, Timescape paperback). I first picked up Worlds last spring just after reading Friday, and it literally BEGS to be compared to RAH's latest. Luckily for "Worlds", it wins. But don't mlet my introduction make you think that the books are look-alikes, for they aren't. It's just that some of the plot elements are very similar. Ok, lets start over. "Worlds" is the story of Marianne O'Hara, a resident of New New York, one of many "Worlds" orbiting a decaying Earth. New New, as it's known to its residents, is the largest of the Worlds, and is chiefly known for its exporting of foamsteel and importing of tourists. Some, such as Bellcom and Skyfac (!) were, like New New, built by corporations looking to make a buck. Others are true colonies and some are even religious retreats. Marianne, because of her scholastic excellence, wins the rare opportunity to continue her education on Earth. She goes to (Old) New York, and makes friends with a poet named Benny. Marianne and Benny soon get recruited into an organization of revolutionaries who are much more sinister than they let on to the pair. To Marianne, it's somewhat of a "project"; she's willing to do harmless investigation for the group but not get involved in anything serious. Benny, though, learns what the group is really up to and gets in trouble for it. While this is going on, New New has just discovered carbonaceous compounds on the Moon. Until now, the Worlds have been dependent on Earth to supply organic matter; in return, Earth buys satellite-beamed power and minerals. If the Worlds no longer needed Earth to survive, then Earth could no longer be guaranteed of the power it needs to survive. (Sounds reminiscent of the conflict between Earth and Luna in "The Moon is a Harsh Mistress".) Anyway, the Earth governments decide to raise the price of deuterium, which powers New New's ships, without letting New New raise the price of its exports. In return, New New shuts off its power satellite. Things start getting messy. Meanwhile, Marianne gets kidnapped, apparently just because she has become the most prominent Worlds citizen on Earth. (Just why she is prominent is a fascinating detail.) Yes, she does indeed get raped by her captors, but she doesn't "enjoy" it as much as Friday seemed to. Will she be able to get back to New New before Earth blows itself up in aggravation? What about the lovers she has on Earth? It's a "can't put it down" type of story. I loved it. The best news is that "Worlds" is labelled as "Beginning a Major SF Trilogy". Now I recall someone saying in these pages (?) that such a phrase was to doom a story to failure, but not in this case (and not in the case of John Sladek's "Roderick", which I mentioned last April.) "Worlds" is superbly crafted, equal to or better than Haldeman's previous works, and I eagerly anticipate reading future volumes in this series. Steve Lionel ------------------------------ *** SPOILER, the following review of Farmer's A BARNSTORMER IN OZ reveals *** *** information you may not want to know if you plan to read the book. *** Posted-date: 22-Aug-1982 To: SF-LOVERS @KIRK Subject: "A Barnstormer in Oz" From: STEVE LIONEL AT STAR Philip Jose Farmer seems to spend a lot of his time writing stories around characters that someone else created. This is not to say that he isn't creative, since he adds quite a bit of his own talent in the bargain. With "A Barnstormer in Oz" ($5.95, Berkely trade paperback), Farmer brings us the story of Hank Stover, a barnstorming pilot in the year 1923. Hank's mother is the Dorothy of the L. Frank Baum "Oz" tales, although Baum mangled Dorothy's true adventures into a successful children's book. Hank, therefore, is not really too surprised when he files into an emerald-colored cloud, (accidentally produced by a Signal Corps experiment in power transmission), and lands in Quadlingland, Oz. Hank quickly joins forces with Queen Glinda to help her in her fight against the evil witch Erakna, who took over as Queen of the Gillikins when Helwedo, the Witch of the North, died suddenly. As Farmer tells it, Oz is not really as peaceful as Baum would have us believe. Except for "The Wizard of Oz", Dorothy's adventure, the remainder of the Oz books were almost entirely fiction. Even "Wizard" glossed over things and did not tell the truth about all that occurred. Soon, though, trouble on another front emerges. The U.S. Army tries to invade Quadlingland through the gate they have created. Glinda quickly subdues the first force, but she fears, and rightly so, that the Army will keep trying until they kill off everyone in Oz. Hank is thus torn between his loyalty as an American and his love for Glinda. Using his Curtiss JN-4H (Jenny) biplane, Hank rounds up the Scarecrow and the Tin Woodman, bith Kings of their respective territories. Together, the plan the attack against Erakna. Along the way, Hank reasons out some of the fallacies that Baum put in his books, such as the fact that the Tin Woodman couldn't have rusted so fast simply because tin doesn't rust like that! There's lots more which I would probably enjoy even better if I had ever read any of the Oz books. Farmer's Oz, unlike Baum's, has sex, birth, death and crime. Having Oz seem more realistic adds to the enjoyment of the tale. Magic, though it indeed exists, is not omnipotent. Therefore, Hank really can make a difference in the outcome. I enjoyed "Barnstormer" a great deal, and will now probably go out and start buying Baum's books. I feel pretty sure that any Oz fan will be delighted by "Barnstormer", and that neophytes who, like me, have only seen the movie, will be equally enthralled. I highly recommend it. Steve Lionel ------------------------------ *** SPOILER, the following review of Hogan's VOYAGE FROM YESTERYEAR *** *** reveals information you may not want to know before reading the book. *** Posted-date: 25-Aug-1982 To: SF-LOVERS @KIRK Subject: James P. Hogan/VOYAGE FROM YESTERYEAR From: SCHOFIELD AT MERLIN I just finished reading VOYAGE FROM YESTERYEAR (the first Hogan book I've ever read). I found it to be one of the most interesting and enjoyable books I've read in awhile. Hogan manages to integrate a basically hard-sf style with a sharp eye (and pen) for the foolishness of the human condition. The book centers around the first inter-stellar colony from Earth set in (you guessed it!) the Alpha Centauri system. Circa 2020, a ship left Earth bound for Centauri. It originally had been planned as a robot probe but when the people in charge of the project saw how things were going on Earth they though it would be a good idea (and it was) to equip the ship to handle people. Of course, since the ship was already designed and in the initial production stages, the only way to do this was...(any guesses?) ...RIGHT!!! Encode some 'puters with genetic info and sythesize the children when the ship arrived! The children were raised with robot nannies programmed to teach the children only facts and to allow them to devise their own thought-patterns, society, economy etc. Free from all the ingrained prejudices and thought-patterns from Old Earth, they developed a society which was so radically different and so incredibly good that it shakes one's faith in the idiocy of human nature. However, just when you thought that we humans are good for something after all, enter the second generation emmigrants from Earth. World War III has taken place on Earth, and out of the ashes rose the United States of the New Order, along with European and Asiatic power blocs. The U.S. has sent out a generation ship to reassert it's lawful and God-given sovereignty over the wayward heathens of Chiron (the new name of the planet).Paraphrase:"After all, they are human, the Bishop SAYS they have souls, but what kind of people can they be after being raised by robots?" Answer: "INTELLIGENT!!!!" What follows is a refreshing insight into the mores and taboos of society as well as the evolution of society in coming to terms with high technology. The story is made all the more interesting because it comes from an unexpected quarter...the "hard-sf" writer. If this story is indicative of Hogan's style, if so would someone please inform me through the list, I am very anxious to read more from him. Rick Schofield ------------------------------ *** SPOILER, the following review of Niven & Barne DREAM PARK reveals *** *** information you may not want to know before reading the book. *** Date: 14 Aug 82 9:13:33-PST (Sat) From: Tim Shimeall To: sfl at Sri-Csl Subject: DREAM PARK (Spoiler) Via: UCI; 14 Aug 82 19:26-EDT Kindly allow me to take issue with some of the opinions expressed on the book 'DREAM PARK', by Larry Niven and Steven Barnes. I agree, very much with the gentleman who noted that you can tell who is going to be killed by the deapth of description of the characters, except for those who are killed in the final scene. HOWEVER I think this is one of the best DND/Quest books to come out in a LONG time. Its FAR better than Norton's book on Blackhawk. I Definately recommend that those interested in SF/DND go out and buy/borrow/read a copy. The ending is not a terrible suprise. Given the DND/Quest theme, the authors have a reason for each character that they present. Each character serves a role in leading to the ending. Up until the final pages, where all is made clear, the role of Skip, the psychologist, is uncertain. He does NOT contribute anything, until his role as the ultimate villan is exposed. This sticks out like a sore thumb on a reread of the book. Also, I felt that the ending was fairly well foreshadowed. By the way, did anyone notice how subtley Niven and Barnes worked in references to other works of fiction into this book? (Does any get a clue from this knife? Well, Its obsidian. What good is a glass dagger? ) I counted 28 references, but I'm sure a missed a LOT of them. Tim Shimeall Tim.UCI at UDEL-RELAY End of SF-LOVERS Digest ***********************